Consider the solution to the bounded buffer producer/consumer problem by using general semaphores S, F, and E. The semaphore S is the mutual exclusion semaphore initialized to 1. The semaphore F corresponds to the number of free slots in the buffer and is initialized to N. The semaphore E corresponds to the number of elements in the buffer and is initialized to 0.
Which of the following interchange operations may result in a deadlock?
- Interchanging Wait (F) and Wait (S) in the Producer process
- Interchanging Signal (S) and Signal (F) in the Consumer process
(A) I Only
(B) II Only
(C) Neither I nor II
(D) Both I and II
Answer: (A)
Explanation: Suppose F = 0. Now, if Wait(F) and Wait(S) are interchanged and Wait(S) in producer succeeds, the producer will wait for Wait(F) which is signalled in Consumer, which is never going to succeed as it is waiting for Wait(S) to be signal by producer. So, deadlock can happen.
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